LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 1 

i 

Chap. BIi-S-3 4 

Shelf O ,'U.7 . 




FEAGIENTS ON POLITENESS. 



(Reprinted from the u Diplomatic Review.") 



CONTENTS : 

THE SULTAN SHAKING HANDS. 

THE ROYAL FAMILY SHAKING HANDS. 

THE (ECUMENIC COUNCIL SHAKING HANDS. 

WASHING THE FEET OF PILGRIMS. 

SALUTATION IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

HOW TO BE CLEAN. 

TEACHING THE CHINESE TO SHAKE HANDS. 
THE COUNCIL MUST RESTORE ETIQUETTE, 




LONDON : 
DIPLOMATIC EEVIEW OFFICE, 
U, EAST TEMPLE CHAMBERS, WHITEFRIARS STREET, E.G. 



1870. 

to 



PREFACE. 



On this great subject nothing as. yet has been written. A 
few fragments that at times have appeared in the Diplomatic 
Review are here collected as suggestions for thought. This 
has been done in view to the (Ecumenic Council, which, 
affording the opportunity for reproclaiming the Law of Nature, 
of Nations, and of God, in respect to the slaughter of men, 
also affords the opportunity of restoring the habits of decent 
intercourse between superior and inferior, parent and child, 
and man and man. 

What use is there in conferring dignities secular or eccle- 
siastical, if the men are not themselves dignified? What mean 
these, if respect be not generated? This is the product of 
noble manners — manners which all have ceased to cultivate ; 
which every one desecrates by his acts, and reviles in his 
thoughts. 



THE SULTAN SHAKING HANDS. 



{Diplomatic Revieiv for July, 1868.) 

In reporting the reception of the Patriarch of the Ar- 
menians and the Chacham-Baschi of the Jews by the Sul- 
tan, a strange expression is used,* which, if bearing the 
natural interpretation, is a far graver matter than the introduc- 
tion of the passport system, or even than leaving an Island 
to be a free domain for murderers, bandits, and pirates. 

The Turks in their immemorial proverb vindicate for them- 
selves dignity. They grant beauty to Georgia, wealth to India, 
cleverness to Europe, but claim for their own Empire " Stilt an- 
" ship."f And, in truth, that Empire has been enabled to 
endure trials and pass through perils under which any Euro- 
pean Government would have sunk a hundred times, by means 
of certain qualities inherent in the people, and which distinguish 
them from the present inhabitants of Europe. These qualities 
have to be specified in reference to the present change ; for they 
all hold together, and the breach effected on this point, the rest 
will follow. 

This people is brave without discipline ; it is honest without 
parade ; just without science ; it is sober in speech as in tem- 
perament, and it is polite in manners. 

Were you to touch its manners, and from polite render it 
vulgar, all the other qualities would speedily disappear; for the 
manners of the grown men are the mould in which is formed and 
cast the character of the children. 

These characters, in the extant generation, become communi- 
cated to the rising generation only by the process of bringing 

* " His Imperial Majesty then accepted the hand of each of the heads of the com- 
munities, and an address of thanks signed by the Primates of each nation." — Renter's 
Express, Constantinople, May 27, 1868. 

f Mahalic, Indostan : guzellick, Gurgistan : akilic, Frangistan: sultanatlic, Ali 
Osinan. 

A 2 



4 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



up the child. In Turkey there is no process visible to us for 
implanting these virtues. There are no reasonings, no story 
books, no child's books. The young grow silently into what 
their elders are, through the ceremonial of that " politeness of 
intimacy which has been lost amongst us." # It seizes upon and 
takes possession of the child, and inspires him with profound re- 
spect and unbounded affection for his parents ; so that he strives 
in all respects to please them and to be like them. 

The Commandment to honour father and mother, being the 
only one to which an earthly promise is attached, deserves 
our utmost attention — an attention which has never been given 
to it, seeing that we have applied to the individual in a sense 
which is alike absurd and untrue, that which is a promise to 
the Race. " Our days to be long in the land which the Lord 
" our God has given us," does not and cannot mean that indi- 
viduals honouring their parents should be long lived. It 
means that a race amongst whom that respect is observed, will 
possess in itself the elements of enduring prosperity. It is not 
here a promise that is given, but a condition that is stated. If 
it were not so, it would be in opposition to all Scripture, which 
nowhere makes well-doing a mercenary matter. There are further 
inferred qualities in the parents, such as to render 66 honour" to 
them both meritorious and possible. Our Maker could not have 
commanded the young to honour vice and crime, and, as a con- 
sequence, to copy those very sins which Religion denounces and 
forbids, which would be the effect of honouring those who 
commit them. 

The youth in Turkey can, therefore, honour their parents, 
because they act honestly with their neighbours, are truthful in 
their words, patient under misfortune, not coarse or idle in their 
speech, not bloody and unjust in their dealings with other com- 
munities, not drunkards, nor given to excess, not uncleanly in 
their persons ; charitable to the poor, tender of dumb animals, 
hospitable to the wayfarer, polite and respectful in their bearing 
to their fellow-men, and brave to do or endure when wrong is 
done them. 

But these grounds of due honour from the child to the parent 
are in themselves the very elements of life by which a people 
may reckon on long years of possession of the land on which 
they have entered to possess it. 

No one will deny the value of politeness in the fortunes of a 
State. All hold it prominent in the regulation of a family, 
and it is accepted as the necessary condition of the discipline 
of an army. Essayists, Philosophers, Moralists, and Religious 



Alexandre Dumas. 



THE SULTAN SHAKING HANDS. 



5 



teachers have dwelt upon it as supremest in the branches of 
human culture. But no one has defined it. It is on their lips 
or under their pen, but a vague and an unmeaning generality; 
or, which is worse, each takes his own habits for the standard 
of Excellence. 

Bacon, when awarding to it the palm inhuman affairs, makes 
no step in the direction of definition. He announces three 
masters of the human mind: conviction, interests, and feelings. 
The first he assigns as the conquest to reason ; the second to 
circumstances ; and the third to politeness, in these words : "It 
" is manners that touch the heart." But what manners ? Good 
manners of course. Still remains the question: " In what do 
"good manners consist?" The question must be difficult to 
answer since Bacon, whilst suggesting it, does not so much as 
make the attempt. 

If we turn to the early Legislators we shall find the matter 
specified. The code of Menu consists in the regulations by 
which the human body in its movements shall constitute for 
itself the language of ceremonial, which we call manners ; and 
so late as a period posterior to Bacon, manners were regularly 
taught, and books written on the subject in Europe. 

We cannot pretend to condense such a matter into a sentence. 
Yet, as regards the points we have undertaken to illustrate, we 
can offer in a sentence the test by which to judge of the pre- 
servation or the loss of that type of manners which has up to 
the present time continued to exist in Turkey, and by means of 
which Turkey has continued to exist. It is this : that the child 
in salutation should kiss the parent's hand. 

The antagonistic principles of good and evil manifest them- 
selves in every thought passing through the mind as in every 
habit unconsciously undergone. We have either the one or the 
other. As Law is known not to be, where there is Public 
Opinion, so is Public Opinion known not to be where you have 
Law. In like manner, where the child kisses the parent's 
hand, there can be no shaking of the hand in lieu of salutation. 
And where there is shaking of the hand there can be no such 
dutiful expression of filial affection as that recorded and applied 
by such practices as kissing the parent's hand by the child, 
standing before his parent till permitted to be seated, not speak- 
ing till addressed, and all the other modes by which the domestic, 
and therefore the public, ceremonial is established. 

It is in this sense that we attach importance to the announce- 
ment — ambiguous, and we trust erroneous, as it is — that the 
Sultan had shaken hands, for it implies the displacement of 
the entire habits of the race. It was, indeed, to us a matter of 
apprehension among the many suggested by the unwonted pro** 



6 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



posal of a visit of the Sultan to Europe ; on the other hand, 
a contrary result might have followed from the disgust 
awakened by the weary sights of the coarseness and vulgarity of 
the European races. An incident at Guildhall seemed calcu- 
lated to render this result certain; and the demeanour of the 
Sultan on a higher field seemed to confirm that expectation.* 
We trust, therefore, that the occasion has not as yet at least 
arisen in this direct form ; but as the practice of shaking hands 
has been fallen into by Turks in communication with Euro- 
peans, and as it began on their part in the first instance, as a 
subterfuge, in order to evade giving the Temenas to Christians, 
the subject is one which we deem it a duty to endeavour to 
place before such eminent minds as Turkey may possess ; en- 
deavouring to make apparent to them the political consequences 
of a change in its social majiners, by a people whose manners 
are admirable, and in imitation of certain other people whose 
social manners are detestable, and whose political condition is 
loathsome. 

The process by which power is acquired is also the same by 
which it is lost : just as growth comes from decay. The 
Sultan is not a candidate for the Presidentship of the United 
States. It may be very expedient for General Grant to 
undergo an operation of shake hands, the effects of which should 
have laid him up for several weeks ; but it would not have been 
so had General Grant been Sultan of a nation of gentlemen. 

But shake hands is not a European practice. It is only art 
English one. Transferred to the Continent, where it is now 
only being introduced, it has naturally undergone vitiation. 
Contemptible as it may be in England, still it is there practised 
within limits, and is judged by a certain rule. As introduced, 
it is practised without limit, and held to be simply an English 
practice ; so that grocer and bootmaker come to propose a 
u poignte de main (handful of hand) a la Anglaise" : than 
which nothing can be less English or more repulsive to English- 
men. 

Though, therefore, exceptionally existing in England, if it is 
to be introduced into Turkey, it ought to be according to the 
rules observed in England. There it is known as a familiarity. 
It is, therefore, only practised among equals. The Sovereign of 
England does not shake hands. She with her subjects follows 
the Turkish rule. Her subjects still kiss her hand. 

The condition to which things are actually brought in the two 
opposing scales of politeness and vulgarity is this ; that it is 
impossible that a citizen of the United States should kiss his 

* Refusal of the proffered hand by the Sultan. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY SHAKING HANDS. 



7 



father's hand ; and that up to this moment it is incredible that a 
Turkish son should shake hands with his father. 

Politically the same contrast holds : the United States being 
the most unruly and unmanageable of communities, and one in 
which Government has become all but impossible ; Turkey being, 
in so far as its own subjects are concerned, the most pacific, 
peaceable, and manageable of communities, where Government 
is so easy that it has scarcely even to show itself. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY SHAKING HANDS. 

{Diplomatic Review for August, 1868.) 

Whilst writing for the last number the first words ever put 
down in regard to this invention, moved thereto by the astound- 
ing act of the Sultan as reported by telegram, yet dreading 
to put on paper words in connexion with such a subject, the 
newspapers were reporting and commenting on a similar feat 
performed by a member of the English Royal Family. 

It seems that the Duke of Edinburgh, confused and embar- 
rassed by the ovation prepared for him on landing, had taken 
refuge therefrom by diving into the crowd after a known face, 
when the operaticn (shaking hands) was gone through. In- 
terest having been awakened as to the so honoured individual, 
it was discovered that he was no other than the Master of the 
Queen's Private Band ; in other words, a servant of the Palace. 

We have here an important " fact" in regard, not only to the 
practice of mutually causing the arm to vibrate, but also as to 
the point of etiquette in the selection of grades between which 
the degradation is exchanged, not only as regards members of 
the Royal Family, but also as regards officers in Her Majesty's 
service. 

The visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to the Australian colo- 
nies had been productive of anything but agreeable impres- 
sions. The incident at Portsmouth explains this result. The 
colonists are generally in arrear of the mother country. They 
still entertain ideas of Royal dignity, and, consequently, feel- 



8 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



ing themselves highly honoured by this visit, expected to find 
in the Prince and his companions, dignified bearing, sedulous 
punctuality and courtly manners. The revulsion of feeling 
may be apprehended, as also the political consequences. 

When the Crown has surrendered power and functions, and has 
avowedly become but a Pageant, at least it has to be a Pageant. 
This is, perhaps, the most important of the functions of Royalty, 
supposing even all the other functions to be duly performed. But, 
ceasing to be the type and model of politeness, a President im- 
mediately suggests itself as a more economical chief magistrate. 
The unquestioned functions in the model Republic of that officer, 
are now manifestly reduced to the shaking of hands.* To us it 
appears very questionable if even Presidentship can, for any 
lengthened period, continue on such conditions ; but few who 
will reflect on the matter, will be ready to affirm that the 
kingly office can long subsist on such conditions. The analogy 
of the discipline of the Navy and the Army is before us all ; 
and no one would affirm that the service could be carried on, 
even that of Republican countries, if the captain of a man-of- 
war or the colonel of a regiment shook hands with his men. 

\Ye have the condition of servants and of children before us. 
No one is blind to the contrast in these classes between the last 
and the present centuries, or to the deterioration of the present. 
But no one does or can connect that change with the absence of 
salutation between master and servant, and the presence of 
hand shaking between parent and child, because these are things 
which he lives amongst and practises, and therefore cannot ap- 
preciate or even perceive. How different if presented to the 
unconfused eye. Such a one opened but for a second of time 
on our intercourse, would link together cause and effect. He 
would say, " Having dispensed with domestic etiquette, the 
" English children call their fathers by a nickname, and Eng- 
" lish masters and servants do not form families but hostile 
" classes." 

It is necessary here so far to anticipate on what we shall have 
to say on this greatest of all social matters by laying down the 
following propositions : — 

1st. That to take a man's hand and with it to agitate his 
arm, is not to salute him. 

2ndlv. That wherever this motion has been introduced it has 
superseded the salute. 

3rdly. That salute is the basis of all discipline. 

4thly. That no human society has been constituted without it, 
as shown by the earliest of recorded usages and etymology. 

* At the preparatory meeting in favour of the President, one hour Tvas spent in 
making speeches, and one hour in shaking hands* 



THE ROYAL FAMILY SHAKING HANDS. 



9 



Stilly. That such practice has never appeared amongst any 
people, whether flourishing 01^ decaying, until the present 
time. 

6thly. That it appeared in England as one of the corrupt 
practices connected with the solicitation of votes for seats in 
Parliament. 

These propositions will be hereafter established ; but it requires 
that the distinction be drawn between " taking" and " shaldng" 
the hand. The first has in all times been practised by men, the 
occasion arising. It is analogous to " putting the hand" to a 
contract. It is a pledge. It belongs to the ceremony or sacra- 
ment of marriage. It belongs to the feudal investiture. No 
greater error can be committed than to confound the two.* 

The importance of the maintenance of dignity as a foundation 
of the Crown extends to the bearing and the affections of every 
subject. A vulgar man all despise, or profess to despise ; all 
ought to despise him. A man is vulgar only because he is 
unobservant of things, and heedless of the feelings of others. 
He is so because as a child he is not taught to be polite. He 
cannot be polite without an established ceremonial which all are 
bound to follow. If not polite, he will not be observant of his 
parents and elders. The feeling of respect will not be deve- 
loped in his nature, nor the impulses of affection be generated 
in his heart. Thus it is that vulgarity offends every rational 
conviction as well as every unreasoning instinct. 

The contrary — politeness — whilst spreading over a land a vast 
harvest of agreeable sensations, maintains public security by 
establishing respect of man for man, respect of man for insti- 
tutions and traditions. Besides the culture of amiable dispo- 
sitions in those who stand in the lower stations, it tends to enforce 
desert, and to shame unworthiness in those wdio are the objects 
of it. 

The Crown is the source of honour, only as being the Palla- 
dium of Politeness. In maintaining its own dignity, it is the pro- 
tection of family affections, of individual character and integrity, 
of public and political temperance and amiability. It is thus 
the first of its functions to respect itself, and thereby to prevent 
its people from becoming coarse, unobservant, disrespectful, and 
in one word, vulgar. 

In a grammar of the middle of the last century, the follow- 
ing passage is given in an exercise. 

* The "joining" of hands (dextra jungere dextram) broke out once in the course 
of time into a usage, but then it appears to have had the same origin as in England. 
We have no evidence that jungere or prensare degenerated into that vibratory motion 
•which has made the fortune of the modern English invention. In any case, it died 
out after the corruption of the Republic sank under the despotism of the Empire. 



10 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



" When your father enters the room you rise, and do not sit 
" down till permitted to do so." 

This is a landmark. By it we learn that a hundred years 
ago only, the domestic etiquette of these Islands stood at the level, 
or nearly so, of Turkey to-day. It is true that the " hand shake" 
had then been introduced, so that the conflict had arisen between 
politeness and vulgarity.* 

Our most recent historian declares " change to be the Law of 
" our present condition ."f This term is, however, anything but 
accurate, and suggests an operation of the mind, when indeed no 
operation has been performed, and where we have before us only 
a void, or at best a chaos. 

To change the existing practice would have required, not that 
the son should cease to rise before the father, but that the father 
should rise before the child. This is not what has taken place. 
The object of respect has not been changed, but the sense and 
habit of respect has died away. 

It is one thing that the habits of politeness should die out ; 
it is quite another that those of vulgarity should be inculcated. 
Not to rise before the parent is a negative matter only, but to 
substitute a ludicrous agitation of the members for the sign of 
salutation is an active matter. 

Capacity and acquirements are distinct from the man ; man- 
ners are the man himself. A man has to make an effort to dis- 
play his proficiency ; he is conscious that he does so ; also of the 
effect he produces on others. In his manners he reveals himself 
all naked, when there is an observant eye upon him. He does 
so unconsciously. Change of manners is, then, a change of 
being. It will show itself in all their bearing, in all their forms, 
and in all their speech. This change in the first family in the 
realm has been already the subject of painful observation to 
some. J It has been effecting an unconscious deterioration in the 
rest ; the tone of English society has been lowered, and a corre- 

* Salutation a Century Ago. — To take a man by the arm and shake it till his 
shoulder is almost dislocated is one of the grand testimonies of friendship which the 
English give each other. This they do very coolly ; there is no expression of friend- 
ship in their countenances, yet the whole soul enters the arm which gives the shake. 
This supplies the place of the embraces and salutes of the French. — M. Grosley's Tour 
to London in 1770. 

f " So absolutely has change become the law of our present condition, that it is 
identified with energy and moral health ; to cease to change is to lose place in the 
great race ; and to pass away from off the earth with the same convictions which we 
found when we entered it, is to have missed the best object for which we now seem to 
exist." — Fronde's History of England, vol. i., p. 1. 

\ It may or not be true, that a member of the Eoyal house, preferring to be ad- 
dressed by a sobriquet and not in the terms hitherto in use, was answered by one of 
his household, " I trust, Sir, that I shall never forget my place, or you yours;" but 
when such stories are told, it shows that such things are not held now to be incredible 
or unlikely. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY SHAKING HANDS. 



11 



spending disregard manifests itself for the kingly office and the 
dynasty.* 

We have seen the result in France of the attempt to retain or 
regain favour by familiarity. It is before us, that in the present 
reign, the courtly standard of manners has suddenly sunk, and 
that, with a Sovereign pre-eminently deserving her people's grati- 
tude and admiration, no corresponding respect is evinced towards 
her or her f amily.f It is in the highest quarter the conviction that 
Revolution is approaching. But this melancholy prospect is laid 
at the door of political and speculative measures. It would be 
better to remain blind to the future than to attribute it to the 
wrong cause. What matter who elects or who does not elect a 
House of Commons, itself a nullity when not worse? The 
causes of Revolution are now what they ever have been, and 
must be — the acts of the rulers and their manners. It would be 
to deny a Providence to suppose that such deeds as ours have 
been for the last thirty years should not bring retribution ; and 
that retribution is revolution first, and extinction afterwards. 
It would be to ignore human nature to suppose that men will 
indefinitely submit to a rule of crime and consequent taxation, 
when, in addition thereto, the habits of respect are broken down. 
These, the active causes of coming convulsion, are in the hands 
of the Sovereign, without whose concurrence lawless wars could 
not be made, without whose permission the bonds of civility 
could not be broken. 

But to return to the Sultan! For an empire, under any cir- 
cumstances, it is a great fortune to have a chief with capacity for 
business, or with qualities such as to attract to himself the 
respect and affection of his people. How much more so when 
the two are combined ! If this is a great fortune for any empire, 
how much more so for Turkey at present ! 

The title of "Picture" has been given by Mouradja 
D'Ohsson to his great work on Turkey, and it is appropriate. 
It is the production of at once a profound Orientalist and a 
Raya. He was also the Dragoman of a Foreign Mission. This 
Armenian, combining so unexpected and invaluable a variety of 
conditions and acquirements, wrote at a period which may be 
designated the climax of violence and disorder. Yet this Raya, 
this Dragoman, writing at that moment, laid it down as the 
result of his examination, that the evils which reigned and the 

* An eye-witness writes in reference to a recent public appearance of the Queen : — 
" Notwithstanding what the newspapers say, there was not even a murmur of wel- 
come, and few had the grace to lift their hats." 

f The phrase was current at Berlin after the marriage of the Crown Prince with 
the English Royal Family, that "the Crown Princess shook hands with everybody." 
The King of Prussia has proved an apt scholar, and has gone to the Baltic shaking 
hands with burghers and peasants. 



12 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



dangers which threatened, proceeded from no vice in the political 
or religions system, and from no corruption in the mass of the 
people. He held that these discords were, on the contrary, in 
opposition to its constitution, and repugnant to the generality 
of the subjects. He, consequently, concluded that it was in the 
power of a great man, whether as Vizier or as Sultan, to restore 
the Empire at once to its former greatness. 

This prevision has been more than borne out, for Sultan 
Mahmoud has accomplished the task. It is not the less done, 
because those who conduct affairs have not the consciousness of 
the position they occupy and of the power of which they might 
dispose. 

But Sultan Mahmoud did not fulfil the conditions set down 
by D'Ohsson. He was not a great man. Greatness requires 
more than success against circumstances ; it requires also success 
in mental operations. 

The present Sultan has eminent qualities. He, no more than 
his father, has apprehended the qualities of his race, the resources 
of his Empire, or the jurisprudence of his religion. But as a 
man he is peculiarly endowed so as to win to himself the affec- 
tions of his people, and preserve that first basis of security — re- 
spect for the throne. He has imposed restraints upon himself 
in regard to domestic habits. Following the example of Akbar 
the Great, he confines himself to one meal a day — so, at least, 
it is reported in the public news — and we accept it as a thing 
which would not be invented. 

The importance of this practice will not be apprehended in 
the West. The idea of indulgence does indeed subsist in regard 
to a surfeit ; but that is all. To eat too much at a meal dis- 
graces a man ; not so to repeat those meals many times a day. 
To attempt to argue on such a point is vain. Let the statement 
suffice. ISTo man can be in the East the object of deep venera- 
tion who eats oftener than once a clay. 

The Sultan, then, by this practice has laid the foundation of 
great and enduring influence, if thereupon he builds with fitting 
materials. That is to say, if, desiring to do well and being 
thereon instant and unceasing, he can rule his own passions, 
discriminate as to personal character and objects, detect fallacies, 
go to the bottom of all matters in the law and constitution of the 
State, and set his face and soul against novelty, for innovation's 
sake. 

But this prospect is overcast if he himself introduces into the 
Imperial ceremonial an operation which is a vulgarism where 
practised, an object of ridicule where newly seen ; and which 
must have unmade the Turks as gentlemen, if it awakens not in 
them surprise and indignation. 



the royal family shaking hands. 



13 



It is our constant task to show how each man contributes by 
his opinions to the decline and fall of the Empire. He is equally 
so occupied in his manners. His mis judgments, his ambiguous 
phraseology, his passions, and his indifference constitute him a 
unit of baseness. So, through the new processes of human inter- 
course in act and speech, he becomes a molecule of vulgarity. 
Nor let it be supposed that his part therein is negative only. The 
man who is not in himself upright becomes a disseminator of 
immorality, for he cannot abstain from re-echoing and approving 
what is wrong. So the man who has not formed for himself 
— that is, recovered from former times — a standard of politeness, 
and acts upon it, in so far as it is possible to do so, instructing 
therein family, dependants, and friends, does actually contribute 
to the propagation of baseness. 

The power and influence of station cease to be known to exist 
when not used. It is thus like talking of the agency of electricity 
before its discovery, to talk now of the influence of the royal 
office. But let us suppose that ten thousand persons were en- 
gaged, as above described, in restoring the standard of manners, 
it will be admitted that some effects would thereby be obtained, 
and that in some degree, the tide would be stemmed. But how 
completely would not this obstacle be overthrown, and the torrent 
hastened onwards, were the heir-apparent to the British throne one 
morning to walk into an apartment with his hat on his head, into 
which he would not have so walked the day before ! 

Every one will see the influence which station can exercise in 
this sense. It must, then, be capable of exercising a correspond- 
ing influence in the other. Whilst this enormous social power 
lies in the grasp of a few favoured individuals, these same indi- 
viduals may, nevertheless, be political nullities. The heir- 
apparent to the British Crown, who can depress or might elevate 
the manners of British society, is wholly destitute of all means of 
influencing those ephemeral operations which the vulgar conceive 
to be important, and alone to be of importance. He could not 
influence a vote on the Reform Bill or the Irish Church. 

Uprightness is only of relative value. It is in estimation from 
its rareness. A man to stand at all must stand alone. An upright 
man must be a resisting man. His uprightness only appears by 
the occasion. Not less have the manners than the ideas of his 
age and country to be resisted by any one who has for himself 
reasoned to just conclusions ; that is to say, who is right where 
others are WTong. If a man were blameless when he is like the 
rest, and blameable only when worse than others, the judgments 
of God would be unjust. Nations only perish when all are guilty 
and base ; therefore, there is work — personal, daily, hourly work 
for every man to do, who among such a people, is not of 
them. 



14 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



THE (ECUMENIC COUNCIL SHAKING HANDS. 

{Diplomatic Review for April, 1870.) 

In the Journal de Bruxelles we read the following : — 

11 The fidelity of the Orientals to their external customs is well 
known. If their politicians, by a mysterious design of Providence, 
have yielded by degrees to the encroachments of European manners 
—if they preserve nothing more of the ancient signs of separation 
than the fez, the people and clergy remain obstinately attached to 
these customs. After all, there is a reason for their existence ; they 
are derived from the most remote antiquity, and are founded on pro- 
priety and dignity. 

" Salutation is a thing of considerable importance in the East ; and 
when Mr. Urquhart in his publications, with an energy which 
appears to us exaggerated, denounces the practice of shaking hands 
which the English have imported into the world, he reasons very 
justly in reference to the Orientals. 

" The Orientals do not tolerate this mode of salutation, and this 
jerking, bearish shake of the hand is to them a grievous offence. 
They salute with gravity carrying their hands to their lips and their 
forehead, in order to testify the respect they profess towards their 
visitor, which they show by kissing his hand and placing it on their 
forehead. To accost an Oriental with a smile on the lips is dis- 
agreeable to him, and has all the appearance of derision. He receives 
you gravely with an expression of peace on the countenance. If he 
comes to your house, to leave him standing when he is not of a very 
inferior rank, is an impropriety, or rather an insult, &c. . . . 

" There are, therefore, in the relations between a European and 
an Oriental, a number of points on which the latter can be cruelly 
hurt, and this is what the Latin missionaries have frequently ignored 
and more frequently set at defiance. Hence arises the antipathy, or 
more properly speaking the abhorrence, which the prelates have con- 
ceived for the greater part of the missionaries, their repugnance to 
all change coming from Rome, and the facilities possessed by the 
agents of Russia for inspiring a fear of Latinisation by the Holy 
See. 

" There are missionaries, for instance, who, setting at nought all 
Oriental customs, and possessing themselves of certain portions of 
the united population, especially the youth, require the faithful to 
enter the church with covered feet, and to take off the turban at the 
elevation of the Host, &c. ; which are so many insults in an Oriental 
point of view. 



THE (ECUMENIC COUNCIL SHAKING HANDS. 



15 



" Some missionaries, it is true, have discovered that they have 
taken a wrong course, &c. . . ." 

These observations have reference to the first days of the 
arrival of the Orientals. Their contact with Westerns has 
spread among them the vulgarity of our manners. 

But the assembly of so many bishops, at the present time, has 
inflicted a heavy blow on that dignity which the prelates main- 
tained in their dioceses. We read in the Decentralisation de 
Lyon : — 

" It is useless for us to speak. Modern notions have entered the 
minds of the ecclesiastical dignitaries, especially of those who have 
been in the habit of mingling in the political discussions of their 
country, and we see produced in the sittings of the Council the 
habits of our Chambers. As soon as a Father has spoken, for 
instance, those who are of his opinion come to compliment him and 
grasp him by the hand; a thing which rouses the indignation of Mr. 
Uequhakt, who proves that the shaking of hands is the manifest 
sign of the corruption of the times." 

It is evil which propagates itself by contact. The style of 
the United States has become the fashion of the Fathers of the 
(Ecumenic Council. Must we also add that the rare exceptions 
are to be found in the Americans ? The excess of the evil has 
brought forth, if not remedy, at least disgust. 

With regard to the Orientals, it is not that they have one 
ceremonial and we another ; it is that they retain manners 
among grown-up people, and that we lose them among grown-up 
people, and extinguish them in the new generation, which on 
arriving at manhood will constitute a society of unmitigated 
rudeness below the most savage races, and which will have of 
man only his evil passions. 

There are, however, some among the Orientals who appre- 
ciate the circumstances from the highest point of view, and 
who are resolved on their return to their country to exclude 
the manners with the opinions of Europe, in order to preserve 
those rules of ancient politeness which the Turks derived from 
their ancestors. 

To define infallibility is all very well ; but, after all, it is only 
a negative operation, the interest in which will disappear after 
the word has been pronounced. To reproclaim the Law of 
Nations is a necessity for the Church of Rome if she does not 
wish to perish. Pius IX. can accomplish these two works, but 
they will be very far from sufficing for the realisation of his 
project for preventing human society from falling into ruins. 
For that purpose, he will have to find the means, as the Pall 
Mall Gazette has well proposed, of recreating gentlemen in 
modern society, a thing which is very easy for him, and im- 
possible for any one else. 



16 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



WASHING THE FEET OF PILGRIMS. 

{Diplomatic Review for May, 1870.) 

Some of our observations on Eastern manners, in our April 
number, have produced a great effect on the Orientals at Rome. 
A letter from that city gives some of the words of one of 
them : — 

u The last number of the Diplomatic Review states the truth, 
" and a truth which is most important. On the one hand, we are 
" not ourselves thoroughly sensible of it ; on the other we are 
" unable to speak." 

Another letter says :— 

" I sincerely wish the Council may terminate soon, not only 
" for the repose of the world, but also that the Orientals at Rome 
" may not absolutely lose that flower of politeness which con- 
" stitutes the charm and poesy of Oriental life." 

The ceremony in which the Pope himself washes the feet of 
poor pilgrims, and then waits upon them at table, under the 
same roof, but in a chamber apart, has at the present time quite 
a peculiar significance. It places in juxtaposition ancient tra- 
ditions and modern practices ; and by so doing, the East and the 
West. Its solemn and religious character ought to impose upon 
every Catholic the duty of conforming to this antique cere- 
monial, and consequently of comprehending it. 

Thousands of pilgrims, male and female, have had their feet 
washed by cardinals, bishops, princes, and princesses. But unfor- 
tunately these persons do not know how to wash. The art of 
ablution has disappeared from Europe with all that concerns 
social life. It was a very miserable and disgusting scene, and 
quite calculated to suggest to the Orientals useful reflections on 
Europe. 

A strange thing is it to see these persons, amongst whom all 
forms of respect have disappeared in their respective relations, 
kiss the feet of the lowest class — feet which they have not washed 
but only dashed over with water. 



WASHING THE FEET OF PILGRIMS. 



17 



We insert on this subject two letters : one addressed to our- 
selves from a Catholic priest, the other a private letter of a 
protestant lady : — 

Mode of Salutation in the Catholic Church. 

Would it be puerile for the Council to entertain this Question ? 

That which in former times characterised the method of 
salutation in the Catholic Church, was a mixture of respect, 
of affection, and of humility. Christians considered each 
other as members of Jesus Christ, and as temples of the Holy 
Ghost; from this flowed respect. It was their duty to love 
their neighbour as themselves, and at the same time to regard 
the services which they rendered their brethren as services 
rendered to Christ in person ; thence came affection mingled 
with humility. 

It was evidently these three dogmas or points of Christian 
religion and morality which, having passed into the manners 
and habits of life, led to, and characterised in the highest degree., 
the monastic salutation. 

We see in the polemical writings of St. Bernard, that he 
sent to Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, a criticism at 
once firm, humble, and charitable, on the abuses which he was 
of opinion had been introduced into the Cluniac order. We 
have also the answer of Peter the Venerable, which humbly 
accepts some of these criticisms, and at the same time justifies his 
order on several other points and details, into which the great 
Abbot of Clairvaux had not entered. 

Now it appears from these writings, that one of the reproaches 
which was made by contemporaries against the monks of Cluny, 
was that of not prostrating themselves before their guests, on the 
arrival or departure of the latter, and of not washing their feet ; 
and also of not making the usual response, " God be thanked" 
(Deo gratias) on the first sign of the approach of a guest, that is 
to say, when they heard him knock at the gate of the mo- 
nastery. 

Peter the Venerable is, in the main, far from despising 
these reproaches as puerilities. He replies on the latter point, 
the omission of " Deo gratias," that the gates of the monasteries 
are always open, and that the people no longer knock at them 
for entrance. He then shows that in consequence of the large 
number of guests, it would be impossible for the monks to follow 
the rule and to fulfil its obligations if they should all go to wel- 
come all their guests and wash their feet. But provision, he 
adds, has been made for that point of the ancient rule in this ; 



13 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



that the abbot and all his monks never allow a year to pass 
without each washing the feet of three guests, and then pre- 
senting them with bread and wine. Some chosen monks are 
appointed to receive their guests in the accustomed manner.* 

It follows, thence, that at the commencement of the twelfth 
century the mode of salutation in the monasteries of the principal 
orders bore the threefold character above indicated of respect, of 
charity or paternal affection, and of humility. 

The writer of this has, on three occasions, visited a Trappist 
monastery of the nineteenth century. He was received at its 
gate by a brother and one of the fathers, whose duty it is to 
attend to the guests, who in the first place prostrated themselves 
before him, then rose slowly with a respectful mien, which 
presently gave place to a lively and frank expression of affection 
illuminating the countenance, without any diminution of respect. 
This unusual spectacle struck him with such force on the first 
occasion, that tears came into his eyes. 

He also learned from the monks that their Eule prohibited 
their asking the name, residence, quality, or anything else of the 
guests they so received. 

The mode in which the French priests still salute one another 
after a long absence when meeting each other at the commence- 
ment or termination of their spiritual exercises, called ecclesiastical 
retreats, and, even more frequently, is the ancient French saluta- 
tion of the embrace [accolade']. This salutation is in itself only 
the liturgico-roman salutation, called the " Peace be with you," 
or the kiss of peace, the fraternal embrace which was given, and 
is still given, in the Eoman Office immediately before the Com- 
munion. 

At this day, in certain parts of Germany, and particularly in 
Luxembourg, and even in that part which is called the German 
portion of the Diocese of Metz, not only do the priests, but all 
the population, without distinction, salute each other by a re- 
spectful inclination, accompanied with these words, " Praised be 
Jesus Christ," pronounced by the first who salutes ; and to which 
the other responds, " For ever." 

A congregation of instructress sisters, whose principal house 
is at Metz, and who, in the three dioceses of Metz, Verdun, and 
Rheims, have the direction of numerous popular schools, have 
adopted this form of salutation. The writer of this has read 
more than twenty times in letters written by the sisters to each 
other, or even to their relations, the following form of expression 
for what are now called the compliments given in charge for 
third persons to those to whom they write personally : " An affec- 

* See "Histoire universelle de l'Eglise Catholique," by Rohrbacher, vol. xv,, p. 
220 and following. First edition. 



WASHING THE FEET OF PILGRIMS. 



19 



tionate 6 Praised be Jesus Christ 5 to such a one of my sisters, 
or to such a one of my relations." 

Those who know how much sweetness and kindness the name 
of Jesus contains for Christians, who preserve piety and holy 
faith, will easily understand that this epithet of affectionate, in 
characterising the salutation, Praised be Jesus Christ, is 
perfectly just, and that this salutation is one of those which best 
express the respect and paternal affection, the source of which is 
in the heart of Jesus, and the expression of it in his name. 

For my part, I should not experience any disagreeable im- 
pression, and the thought would not cause in my mind any idea 
of charging the Council of the Vatican with having fallen into 
puerility, nor even into the narrow details which the Praetor 
ought to neglect (de minimis non curat Praetor), if I were to 
read, on the tokens of honour which Christians owe to each 
other, a chapter analogous to that which we see in the Council, 
of Trent, in the part where it treats of the ecclesiastical and 
religious carriage and dress, and which commences with these 
words : " Etiamsi habitus non f aciat monachum " (although the 
dress does not make the monk). 

I should, on the contrary, be edified if I read one day in the 
decrees of the present Council, some disposition in reference to 
the following thoughts. 

" It is true that the external signs of respect and affection 
which Christians owe to each other — and to all men, considered 
as images of God their Creator, redeemed by the precious 
blood of our Lord Christ, already destined or called to the 
eternal honour of the glory of celestial blessedness, objects of 
that paternal charity which is the sum of the law and the 
prophets — do not constitute in themselves the reality of that 
honour and of that respect any more than the truth of that 
charity which should exhibit itself in works : ( non diligamus 
verbo, neque lingua, sed opere et veritate.'* 

" We nevertheless read in the Old Testament, that the wise 
man saw in the economy of the All Powerful a great respect 
manifest itself towards his human creatures ; f and in the New 
Testament, we see the Divine Master and true Lord of all, 
Himself, after having declared that He came to serve and not to 
be served, as a testimony of his extreme love,J wash in an 
humble posture the feet of his apostles, and set them this ex- 
ample with an injunction to follow it ; and we see him threaten 
Peter, already pure, and who refused through humility this 

* John iii., 8. 

t Cum magna reverentia clisponis nos (Domine) xii., 18, 

% Cum dilexisset suos, in Finem dilexit eos . . . et cum accepisset linteum.-— John 
xiii., 1, 14. 

B 2 



20 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



service on the part of his Master, that he should not share in 
his authority, if he did not consent to it ; * by which we may 
understand that no one, not even His vicar himself, is exempt 
from imitating Him on this point. 

" This is the reason why, in desiring that all the faithful of 
Jesus Christ who are docile to these teachings, may perfectly 
realise in their conduct the precept of the apostle which says : 
"Inform one another by acts of honour ;"f we exhort them to 
place such external tokens in harmony with the internal senti- 
ments which ought to animate them, in avoiding in these outward 
signs all that would savour of the buffoonery J forbidden to 
Christians by the same apostle ; and generally all that, which, 
being foreign to the true expression of these sentiments, would 
be of a nature to compromise them, to debase or to make them 
forgotten. 

" And we further order all the heads of the orders and com- 
petent superiors of religious houses, to maintain with care what 
the ancient rules prescribe for the respectful reception of guests 
at their door and in the interior of their monasteries ; and also 
the washing of the feet in places where it may be practicable, 
such as is happily still in usage among our brethren in the East. 
We enjoin in the same manner the bishops of the Catholic 
world never to omit, under any pretext, the Mandalum of the 
day in Ccend Domini ', and to give it without display, and with 
simplicity and proper decency, each one in his cathedral, and 
not otherwise, unless in case of grave and legitimate hindrance, 
or of a very ancient custom in relation to the place where this 
rite ought to be performed. Finally, we strongly exhort the 
bishops, and others of the clergy, to retain amongst them the 
salutation in osculo sancto ; we invite the bishops to issue timely 
monitions, and generally all those who are charged with the cure 
of souls, to break Christian people off from all the marks of 
honour which should rather be called marks of buffoonery, that 
may have replaced the ancient forms of respect and fraternal 
charity, and to inculcate on them, and principally on young 
people and children, forms and external signs redolent of Chris- 
tian faith, mutual love, and proper respect. 

" Utinam omnes honore invicem praBveniant, caritate fraterni- 
tatis invicem diligant, hospitalitatem sectantes beneclicant omni- 
bus in Domino, et nulli maledicant aut quemquam quovis moclo 
spernentur, providentes bona non solum coram Deo, sed etiam 
coram omnibus hominibus, et si fieri potest, quantum ex se est, 
cum omnibus pacem habeant." 

A French Ecclesiastic. 

* Non habebis partem mecum, Jobn xii., 1, 8. 
f Romans xii. 

j Scurrilitas quse ad rem non pertinet. — Eph v. 4, 



WASHING THE FEET OF PILGRIMS. 21 



How to be Clean. 

("FROM A LADY TO HER GOVERNESS.) 

{Diplomatic Review for Jane, 1870). 

Rome, April 18, 1870. 

Trere is a very interesting institution founded by St. Philip 
le jNeri in 1550, -which is a house of reception for pilgrims ; 
that is, for those who come from a distance to visit the churches 
and tombs of the Apostles and Saints at Koine. What is remarkable 
in connexion with this, is that the pilgrims are attended by Cardinals 
and Bishops, as also by Princes and Princesses, and a great many of 
the strangers visiting Eome, both ladies and gentlemen, particularly 
in the Holy Week, when large numbers of pilgrims come in. All 
these persons put on, for the time, a peculiar dress — the same for all 
— and wait upon the pilgrims, first in washing their feet, and then 
in serving them at table. 

The whole thing is conducted in a most religious manner. Before 
the washing begins, the Cardinal, who presides, reads prayers, and 
also at the end. After the feet of each have been washed, the per- 
son who has done it kisses them. 

You will see at once that all this has no connexion with modem 
ideas or habits, but is ancient and Eastern, which is the same thing ; 
the difference between the East and the "West being that the former 
has preserved what the latter has lost. According to modern notions, 
however kind people might intend to be, they w r ould not think of 
showing that kindness by washing the feet, and this as an indis- 
pensable preliminary to giving to eat. The hands are not washed. 

The washing of the feet, as the first act of hospitality, belongs to a 
time and a country where men do wash themselves ; for, to quote 
the words of Christ, " He that is washed needeth not save to wash 
his feet." 

To Christians a particular significance is given to the act by our 
Lord and Master having chosen to perform it just before his death, 
as the last lesson given to his disciples. Doing the same to the 
poor, who, he tells us, are His representatives upon earth, and at 
the time when we celebrate His own washing of His disciples feet, 
it is impossible that those who do it should not think of Him ; and 
certainly all those who are piously inclined have a pleasure in doing 
it for His sake. 

I went one evening (on Holy Thursday) to the Hospital to see 
it done, with my mind full of these thoughts. And I saw what, 
instead of delighting me, only pained and disgusted me, because 
those ivlio ivasJied did not know how to do it. The dirty feet were 
dipped into a tub of water, sufficiently rubbed to make the water 
black, while the feet still remained apparently as dirty as ever. Taken 
out of the black water, they were dried with a clean towel, without 
the idea of rinsing them, so that the towel and the water were pol- 
luted without the feet being cleansed. This is, of course, the same 
way in which the persons who performed the act of charity wash 
themselves. But what struck me at the sight was the feeling of the 



22 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



deadness that is produced both in the outward and inward senses by 
habits that are unnatural. 

In this particular case there was everything that ought to have 
awakened the senses and the mind. The connexion with the East, 
in the remembrance, not only of our Saviour's act, but of many 
other incidents of the Bible, familiar to us ; as Abraham receiving 
the travellers in his tent, who were Angels, when he says to them, 
" Let a little water be fetched, I pray you, and wash your feet." 
Such a connexion might have been expected to make people think of 
the East, and of how people wash there ; and it is known that wash- 
ing is done there by clean water being poured over the feet or 
hands, and not by plunging them in the water to pollute it. At least, 
these thoughts might have been expected to have arisen in those who 
direct the establishment, so that the arrangements would have been 
made to that end ; and that so, in following the example of Our 
Lord, the act might have been performed as He did perform it. 
The more so, as all the ablutions that take place in the Church 
during mass are by pouring water over the hand. The effect that 
may be produced by this act, properly and tenderly performed (as it 
is by some who, having been in the East, understand it), was shown 
one evening at the Pellegrini, when one of the spectators took the 
hand of a gentleman, after having observed what he did, and 
kissed it. 

You may ask why I tell all you this. Because, when I saw ladies 
contentedly wiping the foot taken out of the dirty water on the clean 
towel, then hissing ike foot still defiled, and drawing on clean stock- 
ings, which they had themselves provided, I immediately thought of 
my children, and felt that there could be no safeguard for them 
against the same state of deadness but in having now, while their 
ideas and habits are being formed, deeply impressed on them, a horror 
of not making a distinction between the clean and the dirty. 

"When was three years old he had a strong sense on this 

subject, which he explained to a gentleman who came to our bath, 
in words which were repeated by the latter to me. He had 
been asked what it was to be clean, and he answered, " To wash 
yourself with soap and water, and then to wash away the dirty 
water with clean water." The danger that he and the others are 
exposed to is that of once neglecting to wash properly ; and then 
gradually slipping into doing as others do. To be secured against 
this they must observe the proper practice, not only as an act of 
obedience, but from the sense that to do differently is disgusting and 
degrading. You will give them the latter feeling not by your words, 
but by your acts, by never omitting to make them observe it, and, 
isbove all by never omitting to observe it in washing yourself. To have 
once seen you do the contrary may be enough to prevent the guardian 
sense of horror at pollution from arising in their minds. This sense, 
that to be clean you must have been not only washed but rinsed, 
cannot be entertained with regard to the body only. It is equally 
true of all things, and they must feel it so. A place or spot that is 
clean is a place which has not been touched by what is dirty since 



WASHING THE FEET OF PILGRIMS, 



23 



it was cleansed. As soon as it is so touched it has been defiled, and 
has to be cleansed in the same way as the body, for that is the only 
way. If, by inadvertence, they touch with their dirty shoes a 
spot on which shoes do not coine — you understand that I speak 
of the bath — you must not let them content themselves with 
drawing back, and saying, { ' Oh, I forgot," as a European would do, 
but they must repair what they have done by taking water and 
washing what they have defiled. 

Such habits as these have been those of all the nations of the 
earth. They still exist where men have remained themselves instead 
of copying others. In the East the whole house is clean, because 
it is not entered with the dirty shoes from the street. ¥e can only 
establish the distinction as regards one spot, the bath. Let that at 
least be carefully maintained, and then that place will be not only 
the great source of health for the body, but also produce a most 
important influence on the mind. 

It is an old saying that cleanliness is next to godliness ; it is so • 
because it may be made a most important assistance to overcoming 
all that is not according to godliness. When this habit was practised 
as a matter of course, its importance could not have been perceived. 
Like many other good habits which are a restraint, as all good habits are 
in one shape or other, its value could not be seen except in the con- 
sequences that have followed on the loss of it. And to see that, it 
required that the mind of some one should be awakened to think 
about it, and connect the cause with the effect. This has happened, 
and so our children have been brought up differently from others. 

But what I want you to feel is, that in helping me to train them 
in this way you are making it easier for them to keep themselves in 
all respects pure. Tou know that I am not undervaluing the teach- 
ing that has to be given to them in other respects both by word and 
example. But what I feel is, that to make them attentive in small 
matters, to give them a delicacy of mind and touch, is exactly what 
is needed as a safeguard against those habits of mind and speech, 
which (as our Saviour said of the false teaching of the Jews in His 
day), being learned along with the Christian religion makes the latter 
of no effect. Why do people affect to despise outward observances 
both of respect and of cleanliness, and why do they speak as if the 
great charm of life consisted in familiarity between themselves, 
which is rapidly coming to begrossness and coarseness, and in throw- 
ing off all former restraints, and breaking down all distinctions ? 
That people should like this who like to be vicious is nothing. But 
we see people applauding and teaching the same, who are not vicious. 
They do it from a false pride in what they call their reason. They 
will argue that the mind of man is above being influenced by the 
observances of the body ; they will start theories, they will invent 
objections, they will do anything rather than admit the possibility 
that the world which they are so proud of belonging to — the civilised 
world — has been going wrong, and has to go back again and find the 
road that it has left to get right. 

That the tvorld should rebel against such ideas is, however, na 



24 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



tural. But for the same reason those who desire to be not of the 
world should grasp at tkeiu, and see at once how entirely they are 
in accordance with the whole spirit of the Christian religion. In 
making the children attend as they ought to do, both in respect to 
mariners and to cleanliness, you will have to prevent others from 
interfering with you and with them. You should therefore think 
over the matter well for yourself. I have but just indicated slightly 
what has to be thought about so as to help you. 



25 



TEACHING THE CHINESE TO SHAKE HANDS. 

(Diplomatic Review for Jime, 1870). 

A letter which has arrived from China contains a phrase 
which, for some persons, will have a value beyond all calcu- 
lation. It is there stated in express terms that the process of 
shaking hands is ruining the efforts of the Protestant Mission- 
aries and demoralising the Chinese wherever it is introduced. 
It is a Catholic who writes. This Catholic little suspects 
what is actually taking place at Rome. He does not see that 
there is not here, unfortunately, a difference between England 
and France ; but that it is France who copies an indignity, 
invented as a means of corruption in the elections to the English 
Parliament. The American continent has already reached a 
point in this respect in advance even of England. There the 
result has been arrived at of arms being disabled by the opera- 
tion, and public affairs embarrassed by the time that is occupied 
in performing it. There, by a mistake parallel to that of the 
Catholic Missionary in China, they believe that it is a republican 
custom ; and a recent writer quite naively proposes the introduc- 
tion of royalty as a means of getting rid of it. 

The importance attached to this letter from China by those 
who foresee the fatal consequences of this levelling process con- 
sists in this : that the minds of frivolous men on the one hand 
are struck by it, and pious men on the other, and that they are 
led to feel that the endeavour to arrest this vulgarism of manner, 
and to return thence to those forms of respect which are being 
everywhere abandoned, is an enterprise which deserves the re- 
spect of every upright heart, and the co-operation of every well- 
born and well-educated man. 

We give an extract from the letter in question, and we add 
some observations of a traveller on the Catholic and Protestant 
missionaries of Syria. 

THE PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES IN CHINA. 

" Here at Hong-Kong the Protestant Missionaries complain 
(C that the Chinese girls do not remain in their schools. The 



26 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



" reason is evident. They habituate them to shake hands with 
" men. In a word, the Protestant Missionaries are doing no good 
" but much evil, not only with respect to conversion, but also 
" with regard to the well-being and security of Europeans 
" established in China. Their manners and proceedings annoy 
" the Chinese, irritate them, and set the Mandarins and 
" Government against them. I am neither an Englishman nor 
" a Frenchman, but I must say that whilst France is be- 
" coming powerful in China by the influence of Catholic 
" Missionaries, England loses ground every day by the ridiculous 
" actions and imprudence of Protestant Missionaries." — Letter 
of Monseigneur Raimondi, Apostolic Prefect at Hong-Kong. 

CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE LEBANON. 

After having described the school of the Catholic Missionaries 
at Antoura, the author continues : — 

" Thus these children will return to their homes with all 
" their habits changed, and after having lost all respect for their 
" parents and fellow-creatures. On the other hand, they will 
" have learned a foreign language which can be of no advan- 
a tage to persons in their condition. Contrasted with the 
" Catholic Missionaries, the Protestant Missionaries are at least 
" logical. Their object is to destroy. They are engaged in a 
" war, silent but terrible. For them proselytism is the end : 
" European influence the means. They must, therefore, 
" pull down everything, customs, morals, and manners. But in 
" what position is the Catholic % The Maronite is his co- 
" religionist ; the most docile and faithful of all the communities 
a which recognise the supremacy of Home. He sees, in the 
" Maronite, piety and faith based on the ancient and beautiful 
" simplicity of manners : nevertheless, he sets to work to destroy 
" them. One or the other must be entirely in error. It is the 
" Church of Eome herself who is assailed in the customs and 
" the etiquette of the Maronite people (as of every other people), 
" and it is the ecclesiastics of Rome who dare to pull them 
" down." 

" I compelled him (a Catholic Missionary) to confess that 
" neither he nor any member of his Church have devoted a 
" moment's reflection to these grave subjects ; and that it was 
" a few strangers from Rome absolutely ignorant of the country 
" who, seeking to innovate, by their ignorance and their pride 
" had commenced this overthrow of ancient customs, the ab- 
" surdity of which he perceived in the domestic circumstances 
" wdiich surrounded us, and whose fatal results on the character 
" and destinies of the people he was able to foresee." — The 
Lebanon, 1860, by Dayid Urquiiaut. 



TEACHING THE CHINESE TO SHAKE HANDS. 



27 



From this extract it appears that both Protestants and 
Catholics in Syria alike teach the shaking of hands. The result 
has been an equal disgust for France and England. 

Consequently the empire of the world has now to be won no 
longer by the most eminent or the most just, but by the most 
polite; if indeed politeness can yet succeed in finding some 
harbour of refuge. 

We cannot conclude these remarks without taking notice of a 
most painful scene winch took place at the commemoration of 
the anniversary of the founding of the City of Rome, when the 
Pope, after being hustled in a tent, was pursued in his walk 
amid the ruins which he desired to visit, by women, filled no 
doubt with devotion and love, but strangers to propriety and 
respect. 

The Papacy appeared to be the last refuge of sovereign 
dignity ; but such a scene could not have taken place in the 
court of the smallest or the most citizen King in Europe. 



28 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS 



THE COUNCIL MUST EESTOEE ETIQUETTE. 

(Diplomatic Review for June, 1870.) 
[Private Letter."] 

Milan, May 20, 1870. 

The proposition that the Council should regulate the mode of 
salutation, comes no longer from a solitary individual. An Eng- 
lish journal, thoroughly Protestant, after having described the 
brutality of the English in Egypt, says : " Since neither Chris- 
tianity nor Civilisation has given us the manners of gentlemen, 
" should not the (Ecumenic Council undertake the task ?" 

I was saying recently to an Englishman at Rome, u Is there 
" any way whatever of preventing you from reciprocally shaking 
" your arms when you meet each other ?" He replied, " Yes, a 
6i Decree of the Council." 

The time which may elapse before the close of the Council 
offers the chance of obtaining something in this sense. The atten- 
tion of some persons is already awakened, which is a point of 
very great importance. You, more than any other man, are 
fitted by a light and varied touch to arouse this attention. In the 
presence of this question all others lose their importance. The 
style, said Voltaire, is the man ;. and he only spoke of grammar. 
The question here is that of destroying the very framework of 
society by a process in which each acts, and on which no one 
thinks. 

Do not suppose that it is impossible to do otherwise. The 
doing otherwise confers power. I myself have acquired in- 
fluence through the very infraction of that method which the 
rest have adopted as a means of conciliating favour, and have 
thus accomplished things which I should never have other- 
wise dared to attempt. Existing errors furnish strength to those 
who oppose them. If this be true of ideas, how much more so 
is it of manners? 

The commencements of all societies may be summed up in 
the ways which their legislators have laid down. They are 



THE COUNCIL MUST RESTORE ETIQUETTE. 



29 



three : first, the rule of cleanliness ; second, the rule of polite- 
ness ; third, the rule of justice. Seek the beginning, and you 
will always find these. Modern society is admitted to be in a 
state of decomposition. We must return, if we propose to save 
it, to the work of the primitive legislator. For the first and last 
of the three rules a commencement has been made. In the 
ancient Roman Thermae now restored at San Pietro in Vincoli, 
the modern Romans may learn how to wash themselves. The 
(Ecumenical Council will reinaugurate the ancient code of the 
Fecials. But of what use will be either the one or the other, 
if you restore not that human dignity and politeness of inti- 
macy which you are bent upon destroying, in substituting for it 
what you call your " sociability V 

No one will deny that brutality at a certain point must destroy 
human society ; that rendering all men ungovernable, they will 
become incapable of faith as of order. Nor will any one deny 
that we are in progress between etiquette and brutality. The 
successive steps are taken without being perceived ; in order to 
to perceive them, we must embrace the whole ; it is requisite 
that some man living at this hour should be able to feel as those 
who lived under etiquette, and at the same time be able intel- 
lectually to arrive at a perception of pure brutality. For this, it 
is requisite not to be of those who " habituate themselves," as 
Madame DE Sevigne said, " to everything." If Europe is to be 
saved from the last consequences of this " scurrility," there must 
be a man, an hour, and a place. Some one, some where and at 
some time, has to say, " your hand-shaking is a meanness to 
which I will not accustom myself." This has been done ; these 
words have been spoken. 

I now ask you, if the Council is not the occasion for repro- 
claiming the rule of politeness of the ancient religions and 
legislators % I ask you if the Council can reorganise the reli- 
gious orders without giving them a rule of salutation % Finally, 
I ask you if the Council can touch the Cardinalate, a body 
which owes its dignity to etiquette, which alone in the world is 
bound by oath to observe it, without enforcing the rule of this 
etiquette against the point of its infraction in our time ? 

1 enclose an extract from a letter which I wrote some time 
ago to an eminent Mussulman : — * 

" If you will accept as of some value the result of my study 
" of your country and its institutions I will give it you. It is 
"this: — You possess in the Temenas a political palladium. I 
" therefore must believe that the introduction of the Poignee de 

* See Diplomatic Review for July, 1870. 



30 



FRAGMENTS ON POLITENESS. 



" main, which kills it, will prove a political danger for the Otto- 
" man Empire, more to be feared than the cunning of Eussia or 
" the imbecility of Europe. 

" Even if you perish by the other causes, respect and admira- 
" tion will follow the memory of a race, that, according to the 
" Spanish proverb, had preserved 

' Genio y figura 
Hasta la sepultura. J 

" Should the truth strike you, do not resign yourself, and be 
" not discouraged. A man who sees is stronger than a world who 
" does not see, and he carves his fortune out of their blindness." 



THE END. 



LONDON: 

C HA.BLES WHITING, BEA.TJFORT HOUSE, DUKE STREET, LINCOLN'S-INN-FIELDS. 



